After Manuel's death in 1180, the elderly Andronikos rose to prominence as the accession of the young Alexios II Komnenos led to power struggles in Constantinople.

The conspiracy was uncovered but Isaac and his sons fled the capital and found refuge at the court of the Danishmendid emir Gümüshtigin Ghazi at Melitene.

[4] The family spent six years on the run, traveling to Trebizond, Armenian Cilicia, and eventually the Sultanate of Rum, before Isaac reconciled with John II and the emperor forgave him.

[8] These appointments were the last in a long line of extraordinary favors given to John[10] and greatly wounded Andronikos, who from then on became involved in various intrigues against the emperor.

[13] During the stay there, Andronikos slept in the same tent as Eudokia Komnene, Manuel's niece[14] and sister of John Komnenos Doukas,[12] committing incest.

[15] When Eudokia's family attempted to catch the two in the act[15] and assassinate Andronikos,[13] he escaped by cutting a hole in the side of the tent with his sword.

[13][14] Manuel criticized the affair but Andronikos answered him that "subjects should always follow their master's example", alluding to well-founded rumors of the emperor himself having an incestuous relationship with Eudokia's sister Theodora.

Not long thereafter, Andronikos promised to turn over these towns to Géza II of Hungary in return for aid in seizing the imperial throne.

Andronikos then escaped the capital but was caught in Melangeia in Thrace by a soldier named Nikaias and imprisoned again with stronger chains and more guards.

[19] Andronikos spent three days hiding in tall grass near the palace, before trying to flee in a fishing boat alongside a fisherman named Chysochoöpolos.

[26] In 1166,[2] Andronikos was removed from court for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to then designated heir, Béla III of Hungary,[26] but was entrusted once again to govern Cilicia.

Upon meeting Kalamanos, the princess refused to address him by name, berated him for being short, and derided Manuel as "stupid and simple-minded" for believing she would forsake Andronikos for a man from such an obscure family line.

[29] Andronikos refused to return home and instead fled with Philippa to Jerusalem,[27] where King Amalric gave him Beirut as a fief to govern.

In 1173 or 1174, Andronikos accompanied George on a military expedition to Shirvan up to the Caspian shores, where the Georgians recaptured the fortress of Shabaran from invaders from Darband for his cousin, the Shirvanshah Akhsitan I.

[34] Manuel had made his officials and nobles swear to obey Maria as regent, on the condition that she became a nun (which she did) and guarded the honor of the empire and their son.

His efforts were largely unsuccessful, as Latin polities began to regard themselves as having a say in imperial politics and anti-Latin sentiment grew among the populace of the empire.

Andronikos had Patriarch Theodosios agree on expelling her from the palace and then had her prosecuted for treason on the basis that she had asked her brother-in-law, Béla III of Hungary, for help.

[48] One of the only members of the previous immediate imperial family to survive Andronikos's rise to power was Agnes of France, Alexios II's young French wife.

[50] Andronikos concentrated his political efforts on internal affairs[1] and was determined to curtail the power of the aristocracy and stop corruption,[47] returning absolute control of the state to the hands of the emperor.

[1] Under the preceding Komnenoi emperors, regional magnates had acquired vast power, managing their administrations at will and exploiting peasants and common citizens.

[53] Other than his brutal suppression of aristocrats, Andronikos attempted to put sensible policies in place to secure the well-being of the peasantry and provincial administration of the empire.

[55] The emperor actively responded to complaints of inequality and corruption, and tried to shorten the gap between the provinces and the capital, seeking to solve problems that had originated in Manuel's pro-aristocratic reign.

William invaded the Byzantine Empire and successfully captured both Dyrrhachium and Thessaloniki in the name of a young man pretending to be Alexios II.

[39] The capture of Thessaloniki in August 1185[1] was followed by a brutal sack of the city, portrayed by the chronicler William of Tyre as if the Sicilians were "making war on God himself", and as revenge for the Massacre of the Latins.

[47] During this time, Andronikos sent Stephen Hagiochristophorites to arrest the earlier rebel Isaac Angelos,[57] who was a matrilineal relative of the Komnenos dynasty.

Alongside numerous other punishments, his right hand was cut off, his teeth and hair were pulled out, one of his eyes was gouged out, and boiling water was thrown in his face.

This policy included changing earlier texts; in the writings of Theodore Balsamon, for instance, all references to Andronikos as basileus (emperor) were replaced by tyrannos.

[73] At its extreme, this could allow for independent local governments, such as that of Isaac Komnenos in Cyprus and the later realm ruled by Leo Sgouros in the Peloponnese.

[54] Through his reforms and brutal suppression, Andronikos destroyed the Komnenian system,[73] though his death ended all attempts to curb the power of the aristocracy.

[54] His domestic reforms were largely sensible, though imposed too hastily, and his brutal fall from power after a short reign stopped any chance of repairing the system.